Doctors’ Mission to Help Greece’s Remote Island Communities Becomes Documentary

Amorgos island, Greece. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Oliwan CC-BY-3.0 (Cropped)

The tireless enactment of the “Aegean Team” foundation volunteers — besides known arsenic “doctors connected inflatable boats” — is highlighted successful a caller documentary that premiered astatine the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival successful March and is acceptable to circuit European movie festivals, opening successful France.

Directed by Voula Kostaki and produced by the Thessaloniki-based, province-skewed transmission of the Greek nationalist broadcaster, ERT3, “One road… the Sea,” puts the spotlight connected the foundation that launched thirty years ago with the purpose to supply thing betwixt critical aesculapian services to the operation of basal infrastructure connected Greek islands. 

“One Road …the Sea” documentary filmmakers and unit joined by volunteers attending the satellite premiere screening astatine the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. Credit: Courtesy of ERT

Bathed successful Greek airy and the immense bluish of the Aegean Sea, the fast-paced documentary offers an insider’s glimpse into the beingness of islanders and the challenges they face, seen done the lens of societal publication and solidarity that the Aegean Team basal for.

A fascinating travel to the Greek islands

The unit of ERT3 followed the squad of 130 volunteers implicit a play of 8 days with state-of-the-art filming equipment, including 3 flying drones, to papers Aegean Team’s enactment with distant land communities.

Together they visited the tiny Cycladic islands of Kimolos, Thirasia, Ios, Amorgos, Kinaros, Irakleia, and Koufonisia, filming for much than 14 hours per day.

The documentary follows the enitre process from however the volunteers hole and get to each land successful need, connected their fleet of inflatable boats; their scope of activities; arsenic good arsenic the interaction those person connected land communities.

“We person each heard from clip to clip astir a squad of doctors connected inflatable boats that question the Aegean Sea offering aesculapian assistance to the residents of our distant islands. This offer, arsenic good arsenic the distant islands themselves, became the starting constituent for the implementation of our ngo for ERT3, which was unprecedented,” said manager Voula Kostaki.

“One Road …the Sea” documentary manager Voula Kostaki astatine its satellite premiere successful Thessaloniki. Credit: Courtesy of ERT

The satellite premiere screening took spot connected March 14 during the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival.

Production manager Argyris Doublatzis told the assemblage however filming “One Road… the Sea” presented important method and organisational difficulties arsenic the unit moved regular from land to land alongside the foundation volunteers, which besides meant they had to perpetually repack and determination the entirety of their filming instrumentality aft each agelong day.

“This was the archetypal clip that ERT rented a vessel for this benignant of production, which was acceptable up precise quickly,” helium added. “And it was a peculiar ngo to beryllium on: we had nary guide, conscionable a captain.”

According to photography co-director and cinematographer Antonis Katsogiannos, what helium wishes for the documentary to achieve, is to trigger questions among viewers and to marque them wonder, what could anyone bash successful assistance of Greek distant land communities.